Odd question here

[Cpeden7]

Hows it going guys I'm in somewhat of a debacle here. I currently have a build that consists of an AMD 8320 and crossfired R9 270x's 4gb. Now I have been reading things and from my own experience I have noticed little gain from these xfire cards due to poor optimization in profiles. And have also heard that an i5 would do so much more for me in the gaming world.

So my question is would I be better off selling off one of the gpu's, the mobo, and cpu and investing in an i5? Let me know what you all think.

PS here is current rig: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/xsf6WZ

 

[Aspiring techie]

I don't think that upgrading to an i5 is worth it. You gain some CPU power, but lose too much GPU power in the process. As proven in recent SBM, the processor isn't as big of a bottleneck as people think. The 860K didn't bottleneck a GTX 970 too badly. I recommend saving up and selling both of your 270s and getting a GTX 970. Your 8320 won't bottleneck it too bad.

 

[Outlander_04]

No
The i5 will do better in some specific games , but even then its more theoretical than actual since the AMD build can usually max out the 60 HZ refresh rate of a monitor and the "extra"frames of an i5 are completely wasted .

I would suggest you sell BOTH graphics cards and buy one good graphics card for your current build

 

[Cpeden7]

What card do you recommend? 970? 380? 980?

 

[arossetti]

What card do you recommend? 970? 380? 980?

I think that depends on what you are willing to spend and what settings you expect to play at. Tom's usually publishes "The Best GPU for the Month of X." It will contain a nice price/performance analysis. I prefer NVIDA cards and had a 980; out of the three I'd pick that one for its computing power/thermal output/power consumption.

But you also have to consider how they will interact with your CPU as far as bottlenecks.

 

[Cpeden7]

If I OC my cpu to 4.3 or 4.5 (I've had 4.7 but just didn't need to keep it there) do you think that would eliminate a bottleneck problem?

 

[Chris Droste]

instead of a complete platform change, if you feel the chip is holding you back you could just pick up an 8370, and go overclocking? you'd be able to keep the crossfire 270s and that 990FX board wouldn't sweat the details.

if you go with the "ditch both GPUs and do one upgraded GPU" a single 970 or maybe a 390? would be more than enough.

 

[Cpeden7]

I have decided to ditch both gpus and go with one. Eliminating poor xfire profile problems and heat issues etc. So now I have the decision I'm thinking 970 is all I need for a 2 1080p setup. I could always Sli in the future if I wanted right?

 

[Outlander_04]

If I OC my cpu to 4.3 or 4.5 (I've had 4.7 but just didn't need to keep it there) do you think that would eliminate a bottleneck problem?

you do not have a cpu bottleneck

Just buy a decent single graphics card . For 1080p resolution that would be either a GTX 970 or a Radeon R9 390 [ which is a little better but uses more power ]

 

[Cpeden7]

I didn't think I had a bottleneck but it was mentioned and I am still new to the PC scene.